A Picture of Comfort
by fanfictionmakermachine
Summary: Takes place during "Reflekta". Instead of getting akumatized, Juleka is comforted by Nathanael after the ruined class photo and he offers to draw a picture of her to cheer her up. This comes with unexpected results.


**AN: Hello everybody. I am here because I had enough. I consider there not being way much more stories about these two a crime against humanity. There are barely any story about this pairing and yesterday, I decided I've had enough. I will write my own and maybe inspire others who like this pairing. I already succeded with another pairing, maybe I will succeed with this one too.**

 **This is an AU on the episode "Reflekta": Instead of Juleka getting akumatized, Nathanael follows her and offers her to draw a picture of her to cheer her up about the ruined school photo. Enjoy! :)**

Juleka ran into the park with tears blurring her vision and her arm covering her face to stop them from escaping. She didn't care if she might run into something or someone, she didn't care that schooltime wasn't over yet. All she cared about was getting as far away from school, from picture day, from Chloe, from everything as possible. She eventually managed to spot an empty bench with her blurred vision and sat down to cry her eyes out.

How could she have been so foolish? How could she let Marinett convince her that anything would be different this year? How could she allow herself to get her hopes up? She was the biggest damn idiot in the world at the moment to believe it even for a moment that any of those could be possible. She might as well accept it, she is going to be invisible forever. No one's ever going to notice her and there's nothing she could do about it.

And then, as if the universe was sending her a sign that these things weren't true, she heard a familiar voice.

"Juleka!" she looked up to see one of her classmates, Nathanael approaching her. He got up to her bench and stopped to catch his breath. Juleka wiped the tears away from her face and tried to control her sobs. Nathanael was a dear friend to her, but at the moment she would prefer to be alone.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, not really doing a great job at hiding her sadness. This came out a little harsher than she intended, but she didn't care at the moment. Apparently neither did Nathanael, because she didn't call her out on her tone and spoke with a voice full of concern.

"I saw you runing out of school crying. Rose told me what happened and I just had to see if you're ok." he said. This made Juleka raise an eyebrow. Was he running after her all the way from school just to check on her? The thought in itself was very touching, but Juleka would have appreciated being left alone more at the moment.

"Did she also mention that I'd like to be alone right now?" she asked as she looked down again. Nathanael however was having none of it.

"Juleka, being alone is not going to make you feel better. You need friends in these times the most. I'm here for you and I don't want you to feel like this. Please, let me help you!" the redhead boy pleaded. Juleka however wasn't convinced.

"Why would you help me?" she cried as he buried her face back into her arms. Nathanael felt his heart shatter into a million pieces. He never saw any of his friends like this and he had to use every bit of his willpower to keep himself from crying too. He had to stay strong for Juleka. He sat down next to her and put an arm around her shoulder. She weakly tried to shake his hand off but to no avail.

"Because you are a very dear friend of mine and that's what friends are for. They are there for each other in difficult times like now." He put his other hand at Juleka's chin and gently raised her head so he could face her. "Please. Let me be there for you."

Juleka didn't know what to say. It wasn't very often that someone showed her that much concern safe for her parents and Rose. It felt really good. She wanted to cherish this moment, this feeling for a long time. She eventually buried her face into Nathanael's shoulder and continued to sob, but her sobs were nowhere near as loud and intense as a few seconds ago. Nathanael took this as a positive sign that he managed to calm her down a bit. He wrapped his arms around the girl's shoulders and started stroking her back. He was very happy that he let her confort him and that he managed to.

Thier moment however was suddenly interrupted by a loud, growling sound, which the teens quickly deduced came from Juleka's stomach. Nathanael chuckled.

"Guess coming away during lunch break wasn't a very good idea." he stood up and offered Juleka his hand. "Let's go. I'll take you out to lunch. My treat."

Juleka hung her head. "You... you don't have to." Nathanael put his arm around her shoulder and knelt down to face her.

"I insist." he smiled warmly. Juleka didn't want to trouble him. But she finally let him convince her and accepted his hand. The two were soon walking away from the park to a place to eat, but as they left they failed to notice two things, a black and purple colored butterfly heading towards Juleka turning back and flying away and that their hands remained connected the whole way.

* * *

The two teens found their way to the bakery of Marinette's parents and ordered some croissants and hot chocolate which they were kind enough to give them for free, seeing the shaken state Juleka was in. They decided to have lunch in the park. The two were quietly chewing on their croissants and were mostly staring ahead of themselves. Juleka just tried to enjoy this small lunch with the artist and get as much pleasure out of this afternoon as she could after it turned way more pleasant. But Nathanael's mind was somewhere else. He wanted to do something really special for Juleka. Something that would make her especially happy. And as he kept brainstorming, he came up with an idea.

If Juleka was having trouble with photos, he is going to portray her in another way. He was an artist and he liked to think he was a good one at that. He would make a drawing of her that would be just as good as a photo, if not better. But there was a problem. He didn't know how to bring this up to her. This 'photo curse' thing was obviously a sore topic for her and he didn't want to ruin her day again after he managed to make a pleasant turn in it for her. Nathanael was not the best with words, so he decided not to beat around the bush and just come out with it.

"I want to draw you." Juleka nearly spat out her hot chocolate.

"Uh, what?" she asked with a confused expression.

"You heard me. I want to draw you. I know how much not getting proper pictures of you bothers you. And I want to help you with it." Nathanael looked the goth girl straight in the eye. "I want to help you feel better about yourself, Juleka. You deserve it. You are not invisible. You are just as much important as anyone else and I wanr to show it to you."

Juleka felt the artist's words touch her deep inside. No one has ever taken so much effort to do something for her. Nathanael clearly wanted to make her feel better about herself, but she still wasn't sure if she was worth it. She was about to protest, but the boy stopped her before she could.

"And I'm not taking no for an answer. I am going to make a portray of you to make you realize how real and beautiful you really are." both of them were taken aback by the sudden realization that Nathanael just called her beautiful. They both turned away from each other and looked down in embarrasment with blushed on their faces. After a few seconds of silence, Juleka broke the silence.

"Um... thank you."

"You're welcome." Nathanael replied. With a bold thought, he took her hand in his and started pulling her away. "Come on. We'll go to my place and do the drawing. My parents aren't home until the evening." Juleka just let herself be lead away by him without a word.

* * *

"Ok. Just sit down here and let me take care of the rest." Nathanael instructed Juleka as he placed a chair into the middle of his room. The girl just did as she was told. She was still a little unsure about this, but Nathanael made it clear that he was going throught with this, no matter what. So protesting would be pointless.

As soon as she took a seat, the artist placed another chair right in front of her and sat down himself, placing a large paper on a wooden board in his lap and grabbing his pencil.

"Now, I need you to look at me and stay still. I'm not gonna lie. This'll take a while. Last chance to go to the bathroom before we start." he joked. Juleka smiled slightly.

"I'm ready." she said. Nathanael nodded and started to work. They have been sitting in silence for a while. Nathanael worked and even though Juleka couldn't see the drawing yet, she noticed that he hasn't stopped for a second, which she took as a good sign. However, the boy suddenly came to a halt and a frown took over his face. Juleka raised an eyebrow. Looks like she spoke too soon.

"Is something wrong?" she asked, slightly worried. Nathanael looked up at her.

"Well, just a small thing."

"What is it?" the boy rubbed the back of his head and sheepishly answered.

"Um... I would like you to smile." Juleka looked down. She wasn't sure about that. She didn't really have a lot to smile about at the moment.

"I..." she began. "I don't think I can."

"Sure, you can." Nathanael encouraged her. "Just think of something that makes you happy." Juleka thought about that for a moment. She ran her happiest memories through her head until she eventually reached one that brought the tiniest of smiles onto her face. "There we go." Nathanael smirked. He went back to working on the portrait and the rest of the time of him drawing went wordlessly. Ten minutes passed, then twenty, then they lost count. They just enjoyed each other's company in silence, occasionally stealing glances at each other and quickly looking away with slight blushes. Eventually Nathanael put his pencil down. He looked at the drawing he made with a happy expression. Juleka was glad about that, but now she was really eager to see it.

"Well, are you done?" she asked. Nathanael looked at her with a smile and nodded. He then handed it to her. Juleka took it in her hands to take a look at it and as her eyes landed on it, she nearly fell back in her chair in amazement. This drawing of her was in one word: perfect. It was almost as clear as a real photo. Her head was slightly bent forward and her right eye which was uncovered by her hair was looking straight forward as if she was staring into a camera. It was... she was... dare she say it, beautiful.

"Well?" Nathanael asked, nervously, afraid that she might not like it. As a response, Juleka stood up and placed the board down on the chair, then walked over to the artist and hugged him. Nathanael was shocked by this at first, but eventaually returned the embrace. He felt Juleka starting to cry again, but somehow he knew that this time, they were happy tears.

"I love it! It's beautiful!" she sobbed into her shoulder. "Thank you! Thank you so much!"

"You're welcome." Nathanael replied as the two ended their hug. "If you want to, I can even color it. But it'll take a few days so you'll have to leave it here."

"That would be great." Juleka told him. Then they both noticed that Juleka's hands were still on the boy's shoulders and Nathanael's were still on her waist. They both looked into each other's eyes and soon they both felt themselves leaning forward. Only a few centimeters were between their lips when Juleka's phone rang. This caused both of them to jump away from each other. Deciding to ignore the previous event, Juleka pulled her phone out of her pocket and answered it.

"Hello?"

"Juleka! Where are you?! I have been searching for you everywhere now!" it was Rose and she was clearly pretty worried that her best friend didn't make it back to school.

"Rose, calm down!" she replied. "It's okay. I'm with Nathanael. We had lunch together and he helped me with something." Juleka knew that if she revealed what exactly were they doing the whole afternoon, she would never hear the end of it from Rose.

"Oh, so he's with you too?"

"Yes. And we're ok. But now if you excuse me, it's pretty late, so I have to get home or my parents will kill me."

"Ok. But you have a lot of explaining to do tomorrow."

"Duly noted. See you." she replied dryly as she hung up. After that, awkward silence filled the room. The two just stared awkwardly at each other and it stayed that way for a few seconds before Nathanael broke the silence.

"Would you... would you like me to escort you home?" he asked, more nervously than ever. Juleka smiled, but didn't look up at him.

"I would love that."

* * *

The next day was unbearable to Nathanael. He and Juleka barely exchanged words with each other other than the formal greetings and they barely even looked at each other's ways. The artist sometimes stole glances at Juleka and Rose's desk and he could swera he saw Rose staring at him sometimes with a knowing look. Juleka no doubt told her about yesterday's events.

Nathanael was also haunted by the drawing he made of the goth girl. He was working on coloring it as promised, but as he was doing it, he noticed things about Juleka he never saw before. Drawing her made him see her incredibly pretty facial features. He honestly thought that she had the prettiest face in the class. And the way she was smiling on that drawing made his heart melt. Every single thing about Juleka seemed more and more beautiful by each glance he took at the drawing or her. He had to do something about it, but he didn't know what. He definitely didn't want to confront Juleka about it. At least not yet. He decided that he will have a talk with Rose instead. However. He would need to speak with her alone without Juleka knowing.

Later that day, he even saw an opportunity. He saw the two girls parting ways after their final class has ended and he decided to follow Rose. He saw her entering the girl's bathroom and he decided to wait for her outside. Once she came out, he walked up to her.

"Rose." the blonde girl turned to him and smiled.

"Hi, Nathen. What's up?" she asked on her usual, bright voice.

"I need to talk to you." he started and Rose gave him the same knowing look as before.

"Is this about Juleka?" she asked. At that moment, Nathanael knew that she knew everything.

"So, I guess she's told you everything." Rose nodded.

"Yes. And I think I know what you want to ask." Nathanael blushed and looked down. "You love her, don't you?" Rose asked. Nathanael said nothing. That was confirmation enough for Rose. "Well, you should tell her. You didn't hear it from me, but the way she was talking about yesterday made it clear that she feels the same about you. So why beat around the bush? Just tell her."

"I'm... I'm not very good with words." Nathanael said. Rose just kept smiling.

"You're an artist, Nathen. You're creative. I'm sure you'll find a way." she said and walked away. Her words made the boy think. What could he do to show Juleka his feelings? And suddenly it hit him. Nathanael smiled brightly as he ran out of the school building and headed straight home.

* * *

"Juleka!" Nathanel called out to her as he approached her and Rose at the school's entrance next morning. The taller girl blushed at seeing him coming to her.

"H-hi, Nathen." she stuttered shyly. More so than usual. "What's up?" Rose took this as her cue to leave them alone.

"Oh. I'll just leave you two to talk. See you inside!" she squealed as she went inside. Nathanael turned to Juleka.

"I finished the picture." he announced brightly as he rached into his bag and pulled it out. "Here." he handed it to her. Sure enough, it was colored and it was even more stunning than originally. But what really caught Juleka's attention was how perfectly authentic it was. Every single color was perfectly in it's place. It was exactly like a real photo that Juleka longed for for so long.

"Thank you." she said to the boy. "You have no idea how much this means to me." she was about to put it away, but Nathanael stopped her.

"Please, turn it over." he asked her. Juleka wasn't sure what was he trying to do, but once he turned the drawing over, she understood. Something was written on the back of the paper. Something that made Juleka's eyes widen.

 _'Dear Juleka, you know I am not good with words, at least not while speaking, so I will ask you this way. Will you be my girlfriend?'_

Juleka was speechless. She wasn't expecting this. She didn't take her eyes off of the drawing for a while which seriously worried Nathanael.

"Uh, Juleka?" he asked, dreading the answer he'd receive.

"You know." she started. "I am not good with words either." she then looke up at him with a smile. "But luckily for the both of us, actions speak louder." she then placed her hands on the artist's shoulders and pressed their lips together. Nathanael's eyes widened. He was shocked, but happy. Eventually he wrapped his arms around the girl's waist and kissed her back.

 **AN: Hope you enjoyed it. If you did, drop a review or fav this story or me. I may do a full story of these two someday, but right now I have other stories to work on. Until then, please enjoy this.**

 **This is fanfictionmakermachine, signing out, peace!**


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